Former Furman, N.C. State coach to speak at TD Club

By DENNIS BRUNSON
Item Sports Editor
dennisb@theitem.com

It has been 17 years since Dick Sheridan has been the head coach of a college football program, but the mention of his name can still bring a stir, especially among longtime University of South Carolina fans.

Sheridan, a successful coach at both Furman and North Carolina State, will be the guest speaker at weekly breakfast meeting of the Sumter Touchdown Club on Friday at the Sumter Family YMCA beginning at 7:15 a.m.

Sheridan, who had a record of 121-52-5 in 15 years as a head coach, seemingly always had his name linked to the coaching job at USC, his alma mater, when it came open during his coaching tenure. That happened three times and again in 1994, just two years after he had retired at N.C. State.

Sheridan, of course, never took that step and said he doesn’t really ponder it.

“I try hard not to second-guess myself,” the 68-year-old Sheridan said. “I had a lot of other things going on.”

Sheridan stepped down at N.C. State following the 1992 season for health reasons. He said he didn’t know what the future held for him at that point.

“I really didn’t know (if I would get back into coaching),” he said. “I was just going to take it one day at a time.”

Sheridan had a 69-23-2 record at Furman, winning six Southern Conference titles and leading the Paladins to the NCAA Division I-AA national championship game one season. He was at N.C. State from 1986-92 and posted a 52-29-3 record. He led the Wolfpack to bowls in six of the seven years, beat archrival North Carolina six times, posted a 31-18 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference and had the program ranked at the end of four seasons.

“In both places, we were just striving to improve the programs and make progress,” he said. “We were able to make them both better. We accomplished things with those programs that no one else was able to do before or after.”

Sumter High School’s Eric Moeller, Wilson Hall’s Wesley Talley and Everett Rendell of Scott’s Branch will be honored on Friday as the Chick-Fil-A/The Item Players of the Week.



Reach Sports Editor Dennis Brunson at dennisb@theitem.com or (803) 774-1241.